Do high volatage towers impact a home's value? Definitely! But if you ask by how much, there seems to be no one who will definitively say by how much. So is it smart to buy a home next to power towers? Definitely not! Here's why:
- A home purchase should be seen as a major investment and buyers should avoid any negatively perceived attributes of a home. Without doubt power towers are considered a negative. This negative will impact future resale value, as well as the time it takes to sell such a home. I see homes next to or near power towers in prime communities languishing on the market for months on end when everything else around them is selling. Some studies have shown that as long as home is at least 200 feet away from a power tower, there is minimal impact on resale value. But that has not been my personal experience overall--especially for higher priced homes.
- People who live around power towers often have stories about how they interfere with with the functioning of electrical appliances inside the home.
- There continues to be considerable controversy as to whether the electro magnetic fields (EMF's) cause health problems and/or cancer. There are those who say it simply "ain't so." But are you willing to take the risk with your health or your children's health? When you go to resell your home you are automatically reducing the number of potential buyers for it as there are many who simply won't consider a home near towers. (Does this remind you of the arguments about safety from cell phone radiation?)
- Then there's the aesthetic aspect: are power towers something you want to look at from your patio or deck? Are they the first thing you want to see when you go out of your front door? And were you aware they can be noisy?
So do high voltage towers impact a home's value? They do. Should you buy a home next to them? I don't recommend that my clients do as resale value will be affected and we can't even guesstimate by how much. So it's like buying an unknown.
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